Social Media in Travel Special: Exclusive with Starwood Hotels & ResortsOnline travel researchers use user-generated content (UGC) throughout the buying cycle. In its "Travel Consumer Survey, 2007", JupiterResearch found that 32 percent of online travel researchers who used UGC did so early in their research process while 56 percent used to verify their hotel choices prior to booking.

Published: 25 Aug 2008

Social Media in Travel Special: Exclusive with Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Online travel researchers use user-generated content (UGC) throughout the buying cycle. In its "Travel Consumer Survey, 2007", JupiterResearch found that 32 percent of online travel researchers who used UGC did so early in their research process while 56 percent used to verify their hotel choices prior to booking.

According to some of the industry professionals, belonging to suppliers' side, the involvement or usage is different for different types of purchases – Consumers will be seeking different types of UGC at different times (destination vs hotel vs flight) – in addition different types of consumers will look at different times based on (demographics, placement, etc…).

Overall, the proliferation of such content may be making the whole travel research and discovery experience a complex one.

Assessing the situation from Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide's perspective, a company, which has taken some pioneering social media marketing initiatives in the last two-three years, Steven Taylor, senior director International SPG, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, says with web 2.0, opportunities are now available to consumers that were only dreamed of in the past.

"It has made travel planning more flexible and opportunistic, but I wouldn't say that web 2.0 travel sites always mean a greater level of difficulty. If you take Sheraton.com as a good example. researching travel and user generated content is actually simpler as a result of the changes we made that allow guests to research travel related stories from other guests from the Sheraton.com home page," said Taylor, who is scheduled to speak during Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference, to be held in Munich on 14 and 15 October.

Taylor added, "I would also argue that the travel planning process is as sophisticated or as simple as the traveler wants it to be. Someone who has a high level of familiarity with web 2.0 travel sites should be perfectly at ease obtaining knowledge and researching travel on these sites. Alternatively those that are less comfortable on these sites will still obtain relevant knowledge from the vast array of other travel related sites available."

Last year, search engines in the US strengthened their web 2.0 applications, in some cases via inorganic growth through acquisitions of social networking, review/ ratings sites and UGC sites.

On how Europe is gearing up for web 2.0 developments, Taylor said European companies have the benefit of learning from successes and failures that have happened in US and even more importantly, they have the added value of time.

"Since the explosion of Web 2.0, there are new technologies, vendors and opportunities to take advantage of which were not there 18 months ago. With that said, I believe that Europe is moving right behind the US and will take advantage of web 2.0 and all that goes with that. I think it is a very exciting time for Europe. It is going to be great to watch it come to life," said Taylor.

It is acknowledged that UGC works well in the US because it is predominantly in English. A major complication within Europe is diversity of language and culture.

On building a pan-European 2.0 brand, Taylor admitted that whenever you deal with multiple languages there is an additional layer of complexity that needs to be understood and planned for accordingly.

"If you want a successful pan European UGC strategy then a company or brand needs a decentralised structure that passes responsibility to the local regions and allows them to communicate and establish content strategies within a global framework. So yes it does take longer but engaging customers in their own language should be an essential part of any pan-European or global UGC strategy. But, we have also seen that a lot of "English" sites are used across borders. The sites might be English in content, but some are global in usage," pointed out Taylor.

Ritesh Gupta
EyeforTravel.com

(Full version of the interview with Steven Taylor will be posted during the Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference).

Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe Conference

EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct its inaugural Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference, as part of Sales & Marketing in Travel Europe 2008. The two-day conference will be held in Munich on 14 and 15 October.

For more information, click here http://events.eyefortravel.com/smeurope/socialmedia/agenda.asp or contact Gina Baillie at +44 (0) 207 375 7197 or gina@eyefortravel.com).